Seaworld and Aquatica

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So after a weekend spent redoing our favourite rides in universal on Saturday and then shopping on Sunday, we spent Monday at Aquatica and Seaworld. 

Yooga braved 1 ride at Aquatica to humour me and then we went to the 'rapids' which was basically like wet'n'wild's lazy river but faster and had cool small rapids points. We opted for life jackets purely for the lack of effort we would then have to use. 

It was awesome and we stayed in the rapids for ages. So good that after lunch we neglected the other rides to go back to the rapids for a while longer. 

After a bit of rain we decided to move on to Seaworld. At seaworld we saw stingrays and dolphins. We went to a rescued pets show (adopted pets did tricks and the like) and then finished by seeing the main stunt performance which involved dolphins and people and birds. 

The day wasn't too long and we didn't see everything in either park, but we still had a really good day. 

Also we saw flamingos. 

Orlando. 

Justine 

Leaving Orlando

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So it has come to the next step of the trip. Today we fly to LA (and then travel to Anaheim). 

Yesterday was incredible. I have no regrets about our choice to finish our time here with Harry Potter world. We did a little more shopping, rode the rides again and generally just thrived in the atmosphere of the wizarding world. 

Oh and I tried a cauldron cake, which was pretty damn good. 

The place is amazing and one day, I will come back. 

Then finally after waiting 2 weeks I had my first shot at putt putt golf. We had heaps of fun messing around and not really keeping score. Although I did get 2 hole in ones... holes in one? One had a par of 2 the other a par of 3. Very exciting. 

Over the past two weeks I've done a lot of thinking about things I'd plan differently next time or wondering what I could have done better this time. But last night it really got me that it doesn't matter. I've been having so much with what I planned and I've had awesome company (even if we both admit that it's definitely possible to have too much time in each other's pockets). 

Super excited for VidCon in the coming days. Something I've wanted to be at for the past few years and never expected I'd actually get to.

In transit. 

Justine. 

Disney Days!!!

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So Thursday and Friday were our two days at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. We decided against Disney's other parks and just to take our time around one. 

Now before anyone asks, no we did not to Space mountain despite the multiple recommendations. We used our time mainly for meeting characters and shopping. 

Which was awesome. 

The whole experience was so exciting, being such a lover of Disney, I felt like I was buzzing most of the time. On Thursday we met Ariel, which was brilliant, thanks to my childhood self I still have a high lo email of mermaids. 

She talked to me about how Scuttle had told her about glassamaggigs and was really helpful when Yooga and I clarified the difference between them and sungoggles. 

We went and saw a small interactive dramatic piece about Belle. Which we were very happy to hang back and not fully participate in until we regretted it at the end when only the 'cast' got photos with her. But the puppetry of Madame Wardrobe and Lumiere was mind blowingly good. 

I also met Aladdin and Jasmine who were very interested in my long magic carpet flight from Australia to America. 

(Also notice Aladdin's perfectly groomed eyebrows, just something Yooga pointed out). 

We finished Disney day 1 by watching the parade and me finally deciding which ears I wanted. 

Disney day 2 was brilliant. I did feel like I was pulling Yooga from one childhood dream of mine to the next. We started off by meeting Tinker Bell before soon moving on to meeting Mickey Mouse. 

(Unfortunately the photographer with Mickey screwed up and didn't pass on the photos on the photo card we had and the character handler only took one photo on Yooga's camera, so we're not particularly thrilled with that outcome but at least we have one). 

We then spent the next part of the day using our schedules fast passes. We started off with the Buzz Lightyear ride where we shot lasers to defeat Zurg (very similar to the MIB ride at Universal, I have discovered that I like these rides a lot). After a quick lunch we headed to the Speed Racer (which is nothing like it sounds because you don't get to choose your direction and you can't overtake). But it was still hilarious as Yooga tried to steer around the predefined track and I controlled the acceleration. Very very funny when I stop the car without any warning and she freaks out. We have learnt that real driving is much easier that whatever it was we were trying to do there. 

Before our next scheduled part of the day, we went and met Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse, in all their circus sideshow getup. We then went to Cinderella's castle to watch the show that happens every hour or so throughout the day. The show taught the audience that if you believe, dreams really do come true.

Then we went and met Rapunzel and Cinderella! Again we were both I prepaid kind of unnerved about the characterisation of the cast at Disney. 

Then we had a ridiculous amount of fun giggling and taking selfies on the merry-go-round, or as they're all called 'the carousel'. Then we went on a tide through  the story of the Little Mermaid which was incredibly nostalgic. 

We finished our time in Disney with the light parade and light show on Cinderella's castle and an awesome display of fireworks. With the long day and the amount of sleep we're running on mixed with adrenalin and nostalgia and a night time light show, I got super emotional and yes, I cried during the fireworks. It's was Disney and it was magic. 

Orlando. 

Justine 

Harry Potter World!!!

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So if I'm completely honest, pretty much the only reason I planned to come to Orlando was to go to Harry Potter World. Granted, we then made the time here long enough so we're able to get to other parks but the true reason I'm here is HP. 

So we scheduled 2 1/2 days for HP. The half day is to be our last day here but we spent Sunday in Diagon Alley and Monday in Hogsmeade. 

And OMG IT WAS AWESOME. 

I don't even know how to start explaining how amazing it was to be there. We went into Weasley's Wizard Weazes and Florean Fortescues Ice Cream Parlour. We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. I watched a performance of Celestina Warbeck and a couple of dramatic telling a of Tales of Beecle the Bard. We went to Ollivander's and saw a wand choose a wizard (unfortunately they choose kids aged approximately 11, bummer that we're 18 and 19) but still bought a wand from there. We saw Knockturn Alley and went into Borgin and Burkes. We went on the Gringotts ride (a lot). And that was just day 1!

We caught the train to Hogsmeade again and we went into Honeydukes and Owl Post and Dervish n Bangs and had lunch at the Three Broomsticks. We also went on the Hippogriff ride and the Dragon Challenge and then we did the Hogwarts ride. 

We got to walk through Hogwarts and see Dumbledore's office and the Gryffindor common room and herbology and DADA classrooms. Aaaaaah it was just so cool. Then we also got to watch some of the Hogwarts Choir and the Triwizard Rally. 

Aaaah can't wait for our other half day!!

Orlando. 

Justine

Wet n Wild n Walgreens

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So Saturday was our chance to cool down a bit after some ridiculous humidity. No kidding though the weather was still humid and hot and...  American Summer in Florida. However this time we had the brilliance of a water park to help us out. 

We didn't try to get to all the rides, we just took the opportunity to take a day to enjoy outside after we'd been cursing the very idea of staying in the sun. I really enjoyed the day and the few rides we did were awesome. So glad we bought our one time express passes because it was crazy busy as expected. 

Though when you're at a water park, there are lots of stairs and of course they're all outside in the sun.  This means the ground gets really really hot and the stairs are also ridiculously hot so you end up trying to run everywhere but then you land with more pressure on really hot ground. The result being you end up with the sensation that you've probably burnt your foot. This is not fun when your feet are already sore from a crazy amount of walking over the past few weeks. 

But still we had heaps of fun. Especially in the lazy river where you just get moved by the current and there are no stairs. I could've stayed there all day. 

We've done our minor grocery shopping at Walgreens. But it's actually kinda frustrating because there's no equivalent to Woolworths or Coles as far as we've been able to find so there's no fresh fruit and we have very minimal options. Both Yooga and I are looking forward to properly home cooked meals when we get back home. 

Orlando. 

Justine

Universally Excited

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Orlando! Day 1 and 2! Universal Studios! Island of Adventure! Theme parks!

On day one we bought express passes to get through as many rides as possible so we didn't have to worry about long lines every day of our time here. This actually worked a whole lot better than I'd initially expected. 

We got to so many rides (and I only skipped out on 3 that Yooga did) that we made it to the ones at HP world (which we were leaving for later days) that accepted the passes. 

To get between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure we caught the Hogwarts Express. The parks were awesome and we've allowed time to go back and do our favourite rides again. (although we have already done the men in black ride 3 times and I do plan on going again)

Day 1: 

Day 2:

Orlando. 

Justine